Jeremiah 5:28

28 They have grown big and fat. There is no end to the evil things they do. They won't plead the case of the orphan or help the poor be judged fairly.

Jeremiah 5:28 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 5:28

They are waxen fat, they shine
Becoming rich they grew fat, and their faces shone through fatness; so oil, delicious food, and good living, as it fattens men, it makes their faces to shine; see ( Psalms 104:15 ) , yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked;
though they pretended to religion, the fear and worship of God, yet they committed crimes more heinous than the most abandoned and profligate sinners: or, "they exceed the words of the wicked" ^F6; either they speak words more wicked than they; or do such actions as are not to be expressed by words, and which even a wicked man would hardly choose to name. The Targum is,

``they transgress the words of the law;''

and the Vulgate Latin version comes pretty near it, "they have passed over my words very badly"; as if they referred to the words of the law and the prophets: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless;
this shows that it was not the common people only that were become so wicked, but the judges and civil magistrates; and who were so far from doing justice between man and man, in all civil cases that came before them, that they would not even exercise right judgment in the case of the fatherless; who not only require justice to be done them, but mercy and pity to be shown them: yet they prosper;
in the world, and increase in riches; have health of body and prosperity in their families; nor are they in trouble, as other men: this sometimes has been trying to good men to observe; see ( Psalms 73:3-14 ) and particularly to the Prophet Jeremiah, ( Jeremiah 12:1 Jeremiah 12:2 ) : or, "that they may prosper" ^F7; as Jarchi interprets it; and to the same sense is the Targum,

``if they had judged the judgment of the fatherless they would have prospered;''

but the former sense is best; and which Kimchi gives into, and agrees with what goes before, concerning the riches and prosperous estate of those men: and the right of the needy do they not judge:
because they are poor, and can not fee them, they will not undertake their cause; or, if it comes before them, they will not do them justice, being bribed by the rich that oppose them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 (er yrbd wrbe) "transcendunt verba mali", Schmidt; "transierunt verba mali", Cocceius.
F7 (wxyluyw) "ut prosperentur", Gataker.

Jeremiah 5:28 In-Context

26 There are wicked men among my people. Like those who make nets for catching birds, they set their traps to catch people.

27 Like cages full of birds, their houses are full of lies. They have become rich and powerful.

28 They have grown big and fat. There is no end to the evil things they do. They won't plead the case of the orphan or help the poor be judged fairly.

29 Shouldn't I punish the people of Judah for doing these things?" says the Lord. "Shouldn't I give a nation such as this the punishment it deserves?

30 "A terrible and shocking thing has happened in the land of Judah: